We have previously discussed the meltdown at airports due to the latest failure of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Passengers are being asked to show up hours in advance and many are missing their flights due to endless lines. Now, thousands of bags have been lost due to a “technical problems” at TSA. The lack of any accountability for the ongoing failures at TSA is the latest evidence of the disconnect between citizens and their government.
At airports like Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina lines are now commonly three hours. It is a disgrace and, on one day, some 600 passengers missed their flights. In Chicago’s Midway airport, passengers faced a line that stretched beyond sight and beyond the time for their flights. The reaction was not pretty.
Then there is the failure of TSA computer system. More than 3,000 checked bags were lost in Phoenix on Thursday because of a problem with a screening system at Sky Harbor International Airport. TSA spokesman Nico Melendez simply said “TSA is experiencing significant, unprecedented technical issues with its computer server allowing the automated screening of checked bags for explosives.” Despite a hearing this week, TSA continues to treat its obvious incompetence like people complaining about the weather. We have become accustomed to the lowest level of performance from the TSA and other federal agencies. It is the passivity of a public that no longer views itself as having any voice or expectation in good government. We just stand in lines of hours while paying billions for substandard government services.
If TSA were a private business, it would not last a month before being forced into insolvency. However performance is not a measure applied to the government. TSA is fast becoming the ultimate example of an agency that performs at a minimal level despite billions in federal funds. The only good thing is that, while standing around in endless lines, citizens have a chance to contemplate that question.
Karen
The health care system in Canada is, as I stated, administered province by province. It varies province by province. It depends on the party in power. In some more conservative provinces it is administered differently than in other more liberal provinces. In the end you can cherry pick, I read the article-it says nothing, and find stuff wrong with most government administered systems. The fact of the matter, backed up by overwhelming data and proof is that the ‘what the market will bear’, ‘free enterprise’, supposedly competitive but a monopoly, system in the US is light years behind the systems found in Canada and 36 other countries. Efficiency wise about 98 other countries including Algeria are ahead of the US. Read a little more broadly and don’t latch onto the first thing that catches your eye. If you set out to look for data to support the most ridiculous position your will find it. There is data for every perspective. The truth lies somewhere over there under the most data, compiled by the most diverse sources, and proven by reality. Health care costs in the US could be cut in half if a single payer dual tier system were put in place and the government controlled the costs. There are no poor doctors in Canada and the nurses make substantially more. I guess that’s that dirty, dirty, word socialism.
I have worked for the govt. I have worked for a large corporation, mid sized company, and run my own company for 30 years. The govt. is exponentially the least efficient. Here’s the basic ways to spend money. Spend your own money on yourself. Spend your own money on someone else. Spend someone else’s money on yourself. Finally, spend others money on others. The latter is what govt. does and it is clearly and logically, the most wasteful by far.
https://www.aei.org/publication/us-health-care-a-reality-check-on-cross-country-comparisons/
I don’t disagree with Obamacare or single payor because I hate the poor, because of politics, or because I want total anarchy (all of which have been proposed as my motivation. Seriously, do I come across that bad?)
I oppose Obamacare and single payor because, based on my personal experience, research into the matter, as well as actually reading parts of the ACA (before nodding off), I believe that it causes serious harm, both financially and health wise to people. And I believe the poor are actually worse off under Obamacare.
I don’t think it’s right to hurt people in this way. If I get even one voter to realize this has been a catastrophe, and to change their mind, then it is progress towards undoing this harm. We should be working to improve health care in America, not persist in propping up this disaster of a bill. Who would ever think a bill that stacks up to literally 6 feet tall would ever be effective or helpful? How can I stay silent when there are so many people who have no idea that cancer centers can’t afford to accept Obamacare individual policies? Or that I know people are suffering from the myriad other side effects of the ACA? I am not content with good intentions. It’s results I care about. The FDA should ban this bill as a health hazard.
We’re wasting time and resources on the ACA when we could actually be improving health care instead.
bettykath:
That has always grossed me out that they don’t change gloves, even if they put them down someone’s pants. Eeeeeeew. If we plated and grew out what was on those gloves, it would probably look like a Jason Pollock painting.
Isaac – you’re so sweet. There I go making friends again. You know, instead of calling me stupid, you could just disagree with me and explain why.
The actual quote I referred to is from this Canadian article:
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-strategy/the-worst-run-industry-in-canada-health-care/
“Meanwhile, as customers continue to pour money in, they’re increasingly disappointed with what comes out. Quite simply, says Duncan Sinclair, former dean of medicine at Queen’s University, “if [the Canadian health-care system] were a business, it would be out of business.””
The obvious is that the are an illegal (i.e. unconstitutional) organization that needs to be disbanded.
I travel a lot, that is, I drive. I scratched air travel when the TSA gave a choice of a dose of radiation for nudie pictures of me or a hands-on pat down with dirty gloves that would count as sexual assault if done on the street. I rent audio books at one end and mail them back from my destination, then I join the library at my destination and repeat on my way home. Most books can be renewed on-line if I don’t finish right away. What’s needed to make this work is my driver’s license and some forwarded mail. Libraries are great! TSA, not so much.
Karen
You could be just saying something stupid to get attention or you could actually be that removed from reality. Canadian health care does not exist. The programs are administered by the provinces but contained spending and service wise under the Canadian Healthcare Act. The medical systems differ from province to province, rural to urban, etc. Your are, in your typical American way, ignorant. On top of this the US is ranked by the World Health Organization 37th in the world for quality of health care. Canada is ranked 11th. The US is ranked at the bottom of the list, just after Algeria, when it comes to efficiency vis a vis money spent for what is received. The average cost per capita in the US is three times what it is in Canada. The stories that I tell about how well treated my parents were are typically not believed by Americans. That sort of care is only available to guys like Trump in the US. Of course Donald Trump gets better health care than the average resident of Lac la Biche. But use the data anyway.
You must be taking lessons from Nick Danger on how to get attention. He usually uses the, ‘no Canadian hockey team in the playoffs’, routine. Like you, he is devoid of any understanding of what he speaks. Half of all professional hockey players are Canadian. So, the big question has America become that pathetic that the drivel you and the gumshoe spew is the best that you have to offer.
Karen S,
OT – see my comment to you, with recommendation, at https://jonathanturley.org/2016/05/10/isis-executes-seven-year-old-boy-for-cursing-after-death-sentence-by-sharia-court/#comment-1534664 .
Last sentence: “chance”…
Has Doglover never been to the DMV?
Geez, I remember my relative trying to explain to the government employee in Medicaid that no, her terminally ill daughter could not take pills because she had a feeding tube, and no she could not grind it up because as her doctor’s note said, it would clog the tube and require surgery on a daily basis. Her request for liquid medication was denied.
Yep, sounds like the best and brightest to me.
“If TSA were a private business, it would not last a month before being forced into insolvency.” Almost that exact phrase has been used to describe Canadian healthcare.
This is the nature of government when it gets too bloated – inefficiency, completely deaf to citizens’ complaints, over priced, under delivers…
Government should be lean and focused on its core responsibilities. I actually think airport security, since it deals with global terrorism, should be handled by the branch of the government that specializes in such things – the military. Or at least have individual private contractors so that consumers can vote with their feet and choose other airports if one’s security staff’s performance is poor.
Well, right. They’re part of the AFGE union.
In the private sector, where people can shop elsewhere, there is consumer feedback on poor performance. But the TSA has a monopoly on airport security. And as in bad teachers sitting at schools, the AFGE union protects against consumer feedback. There is nowhere else to shop. Unless you drive, take a train, or a ship, which is not always possible.
Welcome to government union workers. And people want the government inserted even more between us and our healthcare.
That’s why I don’t understand. We have all these stories about our vets dying because of fraud at the VA, and they’re all still employed as government union workers. The bad teachers that kids get sentenced to because they’re protected by their union. The interminable lines at the TSA and the DMV.
Inexplicably, some of the same people who complain about government worker inefficiency and poor performance clamor for more government involvement in our healthcare. Weird.
Doglover, there’s no way you ACTUALLY believe what you’re saying:
“The distinction you suggest between govt and private entities is bogus. As a result of decent salaries and benefits, Government entities tend to attract higher qualified applicants and they are highly selective in who they hire…”
Government DOES NOT attract higher-qualified candidates.
They attract people who have no problem working for thieves and are thereby thieves by proxy. Yes, thieves.
Taxation is theft. The people who work for government…and I’m going out on a limb and guessing that you’re a government employee or your spouse is a government employee–or one or many of your relatives, etc…have no qualms about being tax dollar eaters. There is no pride in working for the government. You’re not creating anything. You’re not creating wealth.
The people who ACTUALLY produce and earn honest wages–have those wages stolen from them in the name of taxation. Those tax dollars are then used in the most inefficient manner possible. After all, budgets must be justified and tend to magically expand from year to year, right? Yeah, I’m right.
The TSA is just one agency out of hundreds who spend money inefficiently.
Why do government agencies; or rather, why does the government in general spend money so inefficiently?
Well, Doglover, I’m glad you asked.
I shall now direct you to Milton Friedman’s, Four Ways to Spend Money matrix:
“There are four ways in which you can spend money. You can spend your own money on yourself. When you do that, why then you really watch out what you’re doing, and you try to get the most for your money. Then you can spend your own money on somebody else. For example, I buy a birthday present for someone. Well, then I’m not so careful about the content of the present, but I’m very careful about the cost. Then, I can spend somebody else’s money on myself. And if I spend somebody else’s money on myself, then I’m sure going to have a good lunch! Finally, I can spend somebody else’s money on somebody else. And if I spend somebody else’s money on somebody else, I’m not concerned about how much it is, and I’m not concerned about what I get. And that’s government. And that’s close to 40% of our national income.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RDMdc5r5z8
Doglover, government spending (aka, spending somebody else’s money on somebody else) leaves little room for conservative incentives. It’s just human nature. There’s no way around it. These aren’t FEELINGS…they’re FACTS.
Furthermore, HIGHLY SELECTIVE IN WHO THEY HIRE?!?!
Haha, have you SEEN (and heard) the people who work for the TSA??
I do think that the airlines are partly responsible because they charge so much for checked bags that everyone has the largest carry-on bags, which causes delays in TSA checking bags and in boarding–not to mention safety. I’ve been whacked a couple of times by someone who is trying to load a big bag over my head.
Doglover:
Are you suggesting that the philosophy “Good enough for government work” is the result of hiring the best/brightest?
As ModernMiner pointed out, there is a disconnect between your statement and the reality of what we experience.
“Government entities tend to attract higher qualified applicants and they are highly selective in who they hire…”
IF this is true, what happens to these “higher qualified applicants” once they become employed by the government? The answer is that they’re immediately enrolled in a inefficiency immersion program to remove all common sense, motivation, competence, and work ethic, and are then fed a steady diet of soma to keep them that way.
I thought Democrats knew how to run the government.
Security theater out of control. Bruce Schneier has extensive material on the subject.
The distinction you suggest between govt and private entities is bogus. As a result of decent salaries and benefits, Government entities tend to attract higher qualified applicants and they are highly selective in who they hire (this is of course, not true of political positions and appointees who are among the most incompetent and corrupt of all). Private business, on the other hand, hires those who are willing to accept the lowest wages and least benefits because they cannot get government jobs. The military is of course the exception because it takes anyone who applies with very few exceptions.
TSA fails because its primary job is to create fear of “terrorists”. Screening luggage is a secondary goal. Screening luggage is extremely tedious, inefficient, impractical, and unnecessary. But it maintains fear of “terrorism” so the rest is irrelevant.